Older Adults With Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Nationwide Study in Turkey

Background: A novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 [SARS-CoV-2]) occurred in China in December 2019 and has spread globally. In this study, we aimed to describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized older adults with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Turkey.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of hospitalized patients aged ≥ 60 years with confirmed COVID-19 from March 11, 2020 to May 27, 2020 using nationwide health database.

Results: In this nationwide cohort, a total of 16,942 hospitalized older adults with COVID-19 were enrolled, of whom 8,635 (51%) were women. Mean age was 71.2 ± 8.5 years, ranging from 60 to 113 years. Mortality rate before and after curfew was statistically different (32.2% vs. 17.9%; p < .001, respectively). Through multivariate analysis of the causes of death in older patients, we found that male gender, diabetes mellitus, heart failure, dementia, were all significantly associated with mortality in entire cohort. In addition to abovementioned risk factors, in patients aged between 60 and 79 years, hypertension, chronic kidney disease and cancer and in patients 80 years of age and older malnutrition were also associated with increased risk of mortality.

Conclusions: In addition to the results of previous studies with smaller sample size, our results confirmed the age-related relationship between specific comorbidities and COVID-19-related mortality.